


Kingwood and Crimson

by AgentMaryMargaretSkitz, IncendiaGlacies



Series: Legends of S.H.I.E.L.D [9]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Agents of Shield AU, Berserker Staff, Bullying, Featuring a ship you will have no words for!, Gen, Hank Heywood's A+ Parenting, Hank is a real piece of work, It was supposed to be two scenes but I have no self control, This Started As A Fucking Joke And Then I Wrote Seven Thousand Words, Verbal Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 07:54:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15262842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz/pseuds/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz, https://archiveofourown.org/users/IncendiaGlacies/pseuds/IncendiaGlacies
Summary: During clean-up from another alien event on Earth, Gideon and the team come across a group who has discovered a bit of Asgardian power and is now ready to wreak havoc to find the other pieces of it. The need to stop them increases when one of their own gets exposed to such power.





	Kingwood and Crimson

**Author's Note:**

> Another installment in the AU. I upped the rating a bit due to one of the flashback scenes being a little on the rough side.
> 
> The Reston family mentioned in this is the Royal Flush gang that was in Arrow season 1.
> 
> Also, the talented oasis-wasteland made a trailer for us! You can go check it out and it's awesomeness!

“You know, I can climb up it if you want,” Nate offered. “All you have to do is talk me through how to work that…doodad.”

               Lily looked back at him from the fallen tree she was about to scale. After she’d been infected by the Dominator virus, she’d been a little more withdrawn in the past few weeks despite having been long cured of the infection. Nate knew that she had been through something traumatic and given they were dealing with the aftermath of another alien attack, he didn’t fault her for being nervous. However, Druce had made sure to drill into him that weakness was not an option and you had to overcome it. His SO’s methods wouldn’t be well accepted by the team, but perhaps gentle reassurance could help Lily deal with her newly-developed fear of heights.

“It’s no biggie at all,” he continued. “It’s just fifteen feet.”

Lily shook her head quickly. “No, no, I’ll be fine. I’m just a little more way about the height thing now after the incident of nearly falling to my death.”

“You’re afraid,” Nate said. “Being shaken up from something like that is totally normal. But if you dwell on it, some feelings will take over, especially fear.”

He helped Lily up onto the tree trunk, thankful she already had her harness on so he didn’t have to talk her through that. “Now I want you to keep your eyes ahead and focus on what you like to do best.”

“Not falling off this?”

Nate shook his head and looked up at the scientist. “No, research. You’re a scientist. You and Ray love to figure things out.”

“Yes, I do,” Lily smiled. “With my doodads.”

For a moment, Nate allowed himself to smile briefly at his reference to her equipment. “I’ve got a question. Whatever was up in this tree, it had to be up there for centuries, right?”

“Oh, at least a millennium!” Lily told him, starting to walk. “I was looking into this forest on our way here and radiocarbon-14 dates some of these trees in the forest to be nine thousand years old.”

Nate had to admit, that was kind of interesting. “Do you think that the tree might have grown around it?”

Lily shrugged as she kept on walking. “I’d have to check the dendrochronology first to know for certain, but the Norway spruce is an extremely fast-growing coniferous and I know you’re only doing this to trick me into going up the tree, Agent Heywood. But I’m going up anyways, so there’s that!”

Now Nate chuckled as she continued her trek with a little more confidence. “If you fall, I’ll catch you.”

               He walked over to the part of the tree had been cut out while Lily continued to make her way towards it. Of course, as soon as the aliens had left, there was some pop-up in strange activity. The same thing had happened after New York. Now with this latest incident, it appeared SHIELD wasn’t quite done with the latest invasion.

“Uh, guys?” Lily called out as her device scanned the hollow of whatever had been taken. “Whatever was in here is very much not of this world. Ray, are you seeing this? Tell me it’s not Dominator-related.”

“Good news is that the scan shows me it’s not connected to the Dominators,” Ray said over the comms. “We’re in no danger of a viral threat. But there’s some kinda bad news in that the spectrographic readings are consistent with Stargirl’s staff. Whatever was in that tree was Asgardian.”

“Oh,” Lily straddled the trunk more and leaned to the side. “Hey, there’s an imprint of whatever was imbedded. I’m gonna scan it to you. Can you get a three-dimensional model prepped?”

“Since I’m back in the lab, easy as pie,” Ray said before going silent for a moment. “Um, it looks like a staff or rod. I can see some engravings on it.”

“At least we know now what we’re looking for,” Gideon said, stepping up beside Nate. “The man I just talked to said he saw one of the two holding a silver or steel rod. I’d say that’s where they got it from. We just have to find out where they’re hiding.”

“About that hiding thing,” Zee interrupted over the comms. “Yeah, they aren’t doing it. Rip’s sending what we found to your devices now.”

Nate’s pocket buzzed and he pulled out his phone. He held it out for Gideon to get a good look at the news broadcast Zee had sent them. Riots were happening in Oslo, leaving three dead and twenty injured so far.

“Reports indicate that a group of around a dozen was lead by this man and woman were the ones who started the violence,” the reporter said as a picture of a couple appeared onscreen. “The motive was unclear, but their message was haunting spelled out on Oslo’s streets.”

The screen was filled with an aerial view of a street. Across it, spelled out in burning letters, was ‘WE ARE GODS’.

“Well then,” Gideon sighed. “We know who they think they are.”

* * *

 

“We have ID on the couple who stole the staff and started the riots,” Nate announced once the whole team had gathered in the lab. “Derek and Sarah Reston. They’re leaders of a Norse paganist hate group. They have two sons, also part of said hate group.”

Zee nodded. “Their numbers are going up thanks to what’s happened in Greenwich and also the internet. Yay, internet, she said sarcastically.”

“Norse paganists?” Ray frowned.

“They’re obsessed with anything derived from Norse mythology,” Gideon explained. “Stories of Asgard, for example.”

“Now they like a weapon,” Nate said, picking up Ray’s 3D model.

“I could only get one side of it,” he apologized. “Too much damage for a complete reproduction.”

“It’s better than nothing though,” Lily added.

“She’s right,” Gideon nodded as she leaned in to look at it. “I notice that it’s broken on both ends. That means more pieces.”

“Two at least,” the scientists said in unison.

“That means the Restons are possibly looking for a complete set,” Nate muttered. “Any idea what these markings mean?”

“Asgardian symbolism is my best bet,” Gideon took the model as Nate passed it to her. “Unfortunately, with limited knowledge of their language and history, it’s hard to translate. Next time we have Asgardians on Earth, I’m requesting a book with translations for SHIELD.”

“Or we could call your friend Stargirl?” Zee suggested. “She gets her power from her staff. Maybe she had a longer staff and this was a piece that broke off?”

“I’ve already tried her, and Director Waller told me she’s gone off grid. We have no way of contacting her either since we don’t know if she has a phone number or even a phone.”

“SHEILD has investigators on the trail now of the Restons and their followers,” Rip spoke out for the first time. “We’re the one who have to identify this artifact and find any of the other pieces before they do.”

“Given they found this thing before we did, they clearly have some advantage, ma’am,” Nate muttered. “They managed to locate it in 150 square miles of Norwegian forests.”

Zee raised her hand. “I’ve got a theory. What if it called to the Restons with magic?”

Immediately, Lily heaved a sigh. Nate resisted the urge to bury his head in his hand. Rip fixed the hacker with a deadpan look. “Called to them?”

“It’s Asgardian, so rules aren’t totally the same,” Zee shrugged.

“Zee, just because we don’t understand something yet doesn’t mean we just revert to the dark ages,” Lily told her. “Magic is just science we don’t understand yet. There’s no need for magic and fairytales to explain how this came about.”

“Actually, Zee might be onto something,” Gideon said, surprising both the scientist and hacker. “When the staff first appeared in New Mexico, SHIELD sent me to consult an expert in the world on Norse Mythology, a Michael Rory. He’s a professor at the University of Seville. Rip’s going to chart us a course there, and we’ll see if he knows any more about the markings on this.”

* * *

 

“Professor Rory.”

“Agent Rider, come in,” the man greeted as she entered with Ray and Lily. “Last time you were here, I told you to call me Mick. Forget the professor crap.”

“Thank you,” Gideon smiled.

               As Ray and Lily introduced themselves to the professor, Gideon studied the office they were standing in. There was a lot of clutter around it; books and papers and the like. What really drew her eye was the mannequin wearing a suit of armor. She’d never quite seen anything like it before.

“It’s a replica,” Mick explained, noticing she was eyeing it. “It’s meant to look like illustrations of Asgardian armor.”

“Fascinating,” she murmured. It looked extremely odd, yet the metal looked to be in such good condition.

“I’m guessing this is about what just happened in London?” Mick asked, taking her attention from the armor back to why she’d come.

“Try a tree in Norway,” Ray piped up behind Gideon as he pulled out the staff model to pass to Mick. “This is a three-dimensional model of it.”

“We weren’t the only people who found it, so this is the best we can do,” Gideon added.

Mick picked up a pair of glasses from his desk and slipped them on his face, studying the model. “Huh.”

“Do you know what it is?” Lily asked.

“Based on the runes, a piece of the Berserker staff,” the professor told them. “Hang on a sec.”

He moved over to his desk and pulled out a book from one of the masses that covered the desk. Flipping through the pages, he came to what he was looking for. “Here. The myth goes back to the 12th century. It’s about a warrior from Asgard, a soldier in the Berserker army.”

“Berserker army?” Ray frowned, looking down as Mick set the book on the desk for all to see.

“Powerful army of Asgard,” Mick explained. “Berserkers battled like raging beasts and could destroy everything in their path. A single one had the strength of twenty warriors.”

Gideon raised her eyebrows at that. A verbal reaction almost left her lips, but she doubted it would be appropriate in the academic setting. She settled on a different one. “Basically, whoever wielded the staff had superhuman strength?”

“Exactly. Fighting with it put the warriors into uncontrollable states of rage. The staff contained a powerful magic that put them into it..”

“Or a scientific attribute we haven’t discovered yet?” Lily suggested, still unwilling to accept magic as an explanation.

Mick nodded. “That’s a possibility. Not often I hear that from someone.”

“But what about the warrior in the story?” Gideon asked.

“The myth goes he came to Earth to fight, but ended up falling in love.”

“Awww,” Ray grinned. “With whom?”

“Life on earth, and humanity,” Mick answered. “Fell so much in love that when his army went back to Asgard, he stayed behind.”

“And the staff?”

“Well, the guy didn’t want its dark magic and he wasn’t a dummy, so he broke into three pieces and hid them in different locations.”

Gideon straightened up. “There’s not a chance the manuscript says where he hid them, would it?”

“It does in three verses,” Mick picked the book up and flipped the page. “But these are poetic abstracts from the ancient texts that told this.”

“We’re still listening,” she said.

“Okay, so there’s one about a tree, which has been found,” Mick murmured as he studied the text. “The second- ‘east of the river, sun overhead, buried in earth with the bones of the dead.’ And the last doesn’t even rhyme. Basically just saying ‘close to God’. Who knows what that means?”

“I was hoping for actual coordinates, but we’ll take what we can get,” Gideon sighed. “Thank you again, Mick.”

“Not a problem,” he nodded. “If I were you, I’d search near Viking raid routes. They’ve been finding stuff out on Baffin Island out in Canada. Might be a start.”

Something seemed off about the suggestion, as if he was trying to divert them. Gideon felt more suspicious of the professor now, but maintained her smile. “Then we’ll take a trip there. Thanks.”

With that, she left the office with the sunshine twins.

“Don’t tell Zee he said the staff was magic,” Gideon heard Lily say behind her to Ray. “It has to be science, I know it!”

* * *

 

               While there was a Mount Thor on Baffin Island, nothing Asgardian had been discovered anywhere on the island. Zee had been monitoring message boards for the paganist group, but turned up with a lot of people thinking they were part of a new era of gods and the conclusion that ‘people really suck, ma’am’. She’d also found talk of going underground and done research on the Viking raid routes. Apparently, Seville had been sacked by Vikings twice and one church in the town had some Viking relics. Said church had been built on a crypt, fitting the verse Mick had told them of, so they went to investigate.

“How’s it going down there, Agent Heywood?” Nate heard Gideon ask over the comms.

“Wishing I was about your height right now,” he said, as he bent over to get through another passageway. “But no sign of anything yet.”

“How about you, Zee?”

“Overjoyed that my SO decided to take the very creepy hallway instead of the less creepy dungeon room, but I’ve got nothing.”

“Hey, Nate?” Ray chimed in. “Your spectrograph says you have something near you. Like right in front of you.”

He scanned his surroundings, but there was nothing around him. “You sure?”

“Wait, now it’s moving northwest.”

Something now flashed in the corner of his eye before disappearing. “I saw it!”

“Great. Turn left, buddy,” Ray instructed.

               Nate followed the instruction and turned down the passage. He caught sight of someone ahead of him making their way down the hall. Nate ran after the person, grabbing their shoulder and slamming them against the wall. His eyebrows shot up when he realized it was Mick Rory, the staff now sticking out of his bag.

“It’s not what it looks like,” Mick said.

Nate huffed and reached for the staff. “Gideon, I’ve just run into-”

               His hand closed around the metal and something surged through him. Nate cried out as he felt some force overcome him. Mick made a run for it while he sunk to the floor. The dark catacombs around him faded into bright blue sky before a fist swung at him.

_“You think you’re better than all of us, huh?” the boy taunted._

_He tried to fight back but there were too many of them._

_“Help!”_

“Nate!”

               Nate rolled away from the voice, gasping as the shadowy hall replaced the memory. He was panting as he braced against the wall. Zee held up her hands, telling him to calm down. Nate barely heard her, still thinking about what he had just seen. It had been years since he thought about what happened to him there.

“It was Mick,” Nate gasped out. “He has the staff.”

“Okay,” Zee nodded. “Gideon, something happened to Nate after he saw Mick. You need to find him now, he’s got the staff.”

* * *

 

Nate was glaring at the blood pressure cuff. “This is a waste of time.”

“Nope,” Zee shook her head. “Nate, you passed out. Before that, you were acting weird.”

“Besides, Gideon ordered a full medical work-up on you,” Lily added. “And that is exactly what I am doing. Were you feeling claustrophobic before you fainted?”

“Why?”

“So she can rule out a panic attack,” Ray told him.

“I don’t panic. Ever.”

Lily smiled. “See, now we know and can rule it out.”

“Touching the staff, that’s what caused this, right?” Zee asked.

“Are you exhibiting any residual effects? Like…extra strength?

Nate’s glare moved up to the screen, where Gideon was speaking with Mick in the interrogation room. “How about you let me find out on that guy?”

“Or maybe not?” Zee muttered.

“Okay, moving on,” Ray said lightly, trying to steer the conversation away from potentially assaulting a suspect in custody. “What’s the last thing you remember before you passed out, buddy?”

“I’ve had enough,” Nate growled, pulling his arm out of the cuff. “This is a waste of time. We should be trying to find the staff!”

“I get that, but we need to make sure you’re okay,” Ray told him. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

Nate sighed. “Something I haven’t thought about in a long time.”

Zee remembered how Nate had once told her how his father always looked down on him as a disappointment. “Maybe we leave it alone.”

Lily tried to protest, but Nate glared at her. “Shut up. I’m trying to listen to what they’re saying.”

They all listened to Gideon interrogating Mick. Apparently, he just wanted the staff so he could be the first to study it. Even though the screen, Zee could tell that was a load of crap. They didn’t get to hear much more of it though when Lily decided to shut down the video.

“What are you doing?” Nate demanded.

Lily took a half step back. “Your heart rate is rising and your adrenaline is spiking.”

“You need to calm down and not get worked up,” Ray added.

Nate took a few deep breaths and set his hands down on the counter. Zee leaned in on the other side. “The memory…was it your father?”

Her SO slowly turned his head towards her. “Drop it.”

“If you need to get it out, you can-”

“Talk to you?” Nate said in a low voice that sent a chill down her back as he stepped towards her. “That’s what you do, huh? You talk and you talk and you talk. Doesn’t it ever make you tired? Hearing the sound of your own voice?”

Zee flinched back. Nate was really starting to scare her. She had clearly made a mistake when she tried to offer her shoulder to him.

“Hey, Nate? Buddy?” Ray took him by the shoulder and eased him back. “You might want to stop.”

Nate pushed Ray’s arm off his shoulder roughly.

“Um, I think I know what’s happening,” Lily spoke out before anything else could happen. “What you’re feeling right is just chemistry. You’re having spikes in your adrenocorticotropic hormone. It’s like the stories about people able to lift cars to save someone they care about. An adrenaline surge is able to create a massive-”

“Enough!” Nate shouted. “Just shut up and fix it, Stein! No one else here besides Ray cares what you’re talking about! You ramble on and on and on about all these things we don’t understand. Maybe if you talk in English for once so we can understand what you’re telling us without having to get a PhD, we might be able to stop you from exposing yourself to an alien virus again!”

Lily shrunk back from his yelling. “Nate, I can’t fix this. But I can relieve some symptoms with 10 cc of benzodiazepine. I mean, a sedative.”

“You’re giving him a chill pill?” Zee nodded. “Good plan.”

“No,” the specialist growled. “I am not taking a sedative.”

“You actually probably should,” Ray told him, facing Nate. “Do you see how you’re acting? How you’ve just yelled at Lily and Zee?”

“Oh sure,” Nate sneered. “So what happens if I’m sedated and we cross paths with the psycho paganists again, huh? You’ve seen the footage of what they do. Are you going to be the one to take them on and keep everybody safe? You who failed your field assessment? Or is it me who’s going to have to step up and save you? To save Lily’s ass…again?”

Ray looked hurt as Nate turned and stalked out of the lab.

They were all silent for a moment before Lily finally spoke. “It was just a biochemical reaction. I’m sure he didn’t mean those things he said to you.”

“Yeah, I know,” Zee nodded. “He didn’t mean what he said to you either, Lily.”

* * *

 

_He could see the street signs above him. Kingwood Avenue crossed with Crimson Lane. A pair of arms picked him up before he was punched again._

_“You think you can come in and boss everyone around,” an accusing voice of his classmate assaulted his ears. “You’re nothing. Just a sick kid who thinks he’s entitled over everyone else.”_

_His chest hurt. There was a cut on his arm that was slowly bleeding. He wanted it to be over._

_“Help me!” he screamed out again. What was taking his sister so long?_

“Heywood!”

Nate turned from the punching bag and threw his fist at whoever had just pulled him back. Rip leaned back to dodge the punch.

“You need to watch out,” he snapped, anger still bubbling in his veins.

“I’m perfectly fine. You?”

“Yeah,” Nate nodded, pivoting back to the punching bag. “I’m working it out.”

“By punching things,” the pilot observed as Nate threw his fist against the fabric. “The last thing you need is to punch things.”

Nate sighed and relaxed his arms as best he could. “Have you got a better idea?”

“I know a thing or two about traumatic experiences,” Rip said. “I can help you. Gideon can too.”

“No,” he shook his head. “The only help I’m going to need is to stop the Restons and their followers before they hurt someone else.”

“Fine,” Rip nodded. “Channel your energy into that instead of shouting at the sunshine twins and Zee.”

He walked back up the staircase as Nate turned back to punching the bag before him.

* * *

 

               Gideon watched the feed from the interrogation room outside of it as she signaled for Nate to enter. He’d come to her earlier to say he didn’t trust himself to be on this mission due to his exposure to the staff. It had brought back some memories from his childhood that were pretty bad, bad enough that he hadn’t dwelled on them in years. She saw him coming to her and revealing that part of himself was that she could trust him. Even more, she figured he could be the one to make Mick talk about why he was actually going for the staff and maybe even confirm her suspicions.

“You need to start talking,” Nate said as he entered the room.

Mick sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “I already told Rider everything I know.”

“Yeah, that’s a lie,” Nate scoffed. “Tell what that thing did to me and how I fix it.”

“I don’t know.”

Nate’s switchblade flicked out, the moment of truth. “Okay, then.”

He tried to stab Mick in the chest. The professor didn’t even flinch. His hand caught the blade and twisted it back away from him. Nate withdrew the useless piece of metal, staring at it astonishment. Gideon smiled and moved to enter the room.

“You were right,” Nate said as she came in and shut the door. “He’s Asgardian.”

“I’m relieved,” Gideon stated cheerily. “Otherwise that would have been quite messy.”

Mick sighed and pulled off the handcuffs like they were paper. “You found me out. How’d you do it?”

“You’re hardly the first Asgardian I’ve had in custody,” Gideon replied, taking a seat across from him. “You don’t flinch or panic when you get locked up. Also, I take notice of a lot of things, such as a suit of armor in your office and how it looks exactly like the armor Berserker warrior wears in the illustration for the myth. Not to mention that when I tell someone I’ve had one-on-one contact with an alien, people tend to ask many questions.”

“You’re pretty damn observant, Rider,” Mick nodded. “More than most humans.”

“That I am. So I’m guessing you were that Berserker warrior who stayed.”

“Don’t tell anyone. I’ve worked hard enough to stay of your radar until now.”

“That all depends on your cooperation,” Gideon said as the interrogation room doors locked. Rip had listened to her orders.

* * *

 

               Eventually, Mick starting giving answers to Gideon’s questions that were more of what she was looking for. He had been a blacksmith on Asgard who joined the Berserker army and at first loved the power of the staff, but years of wielding made him start to tire of the anger and constant reliving of his worst memories. When the army went to Earth, he stayed behind and lived life among the humans. It wasn’t until 1546 that he let his story slip to a woman in France, whose priest brother wrote the story that eventually became known as the myth of the Berserker warrior.

               Mick managed to elaborate more on what had happened to Nate and anyone else who touched the pieces of the staff too. A light was shined in their dark places, the parts of themselves that were the worst. Forged from a rare Asgardian metal, it reacted to whoever was holding it, or sometimes interacted with the memories that were dredged up.

               While he refused to say where the final piece of the staff was, the Asgardian’s tune changed once Gideon said she’d reveal his identity to the whole world if he didn’t tell them. With that on the table, Mick told them about a monastery in Ireland that he arrived at once he’d left the Berserkers. They had given him food and shelter. In return, he had hidden the final piece of the staff there with them.

‘Near God’ indeed.

So they set out for Ireland. As soon as they landed and prepared to head out, Nate approached Mick.

“The staff’s effects,” he asked quietly. “Are they permanent?”

Mick shrugged. “The strength wears off and you’ll be tired after it does. That dark ache you feel deep within? The rage you never knew was hiding inside you? Humans get it worse. It wears off too, give or take a couple decades.”

Nate sighed. “Great.”

He stalked up to the vehicle next to Lola that they would be taking to the church. As he did, he heard Zee ask Gideon if it was really okay for him to be going out into the field. The urge to snap at her that it was none of her concern struck him, but he resisted it.

“Even if he’s not acting like himself, he’s aware of that,” he heard Gideon say to her. “He’s going to be fine, Zee. If it’s too much for Agent Heywood, he’ll pull himself out.”

Nate couldn’t help but smile for a brief moment. They had no idea what he was really like.

* * *

 

“How about that?” Mick shook his head as he walked up to a book on the alter of the monastery. “Still here?”

The team gathered around, peering at the illustration of a man in armor holding a long staff.

“Is that you?” Ray asked.

“More or less. They messed up my mouth and thought of me as a saint.”

“Idiots,” Nate muttered. “We need to find the staff, not look at pictures.”

Rip gave him a look, but Mick laughed. “I was anything but a saint. And the staff piece is upstairs.”

“Anyone else find it weird how it’s so quiet?” Ray asked as they followed Mick up the stairs. “It’s creepy.”

“Nope,” Mick shook his head as he approached a cabinet. “The monks take a vow of silence. ‘s why I trusted them with my secret.”

“Ah, but when you get them talking, they say so much.”

               Everyone looked up as a man entered the room holding two staff pieces, one of which was the final part of the staff. Nate recognized him as Derek Reston, the leader of the paganist cult. Lunging forward, he drove the piece into Mick’s chest. The Asgardian gasped and fell to the ground with the silver rod sticking out of him.

“To defeat a god,” Reston proclaimed. “You must become one.”

               Nate clenched and unclenched his fists, glaring at the crazed man. Grabbing onto the piece sticking out of Mick, he felt the power and the rage rise up inside him again. He wrenched the piece out of the wound as memories of the street corner came back to him again. With an animalistic growl, he charged at Reston, pulling them both over the balcony. Once on the ground, they began to fight each other, two humans with Berserker strength and rage.

               Above him, Zee and Rip were talking about going after him and the sunshine twins were shouting about something. They were only background noise to Nate as Reston slammed him into a wall. His younger self’s pleas echoed in his ears, like he was back in that moment. Nate shook his head to rid himself of them before slamming Reston’s piece out of his hand with the one he had. Then he kicked the man back hard enough that he flew against the door and collapsed to the ground. The cult’s leader didn’t move from his place and Nate could see red pooling around his head.

“Nate!” Zee called out, running up to him. “Let the staff go!”

“Zee,” he panted. “Get. Back.”

“Agent Heywood,” Rip shouted, coming up by Zee’s side just as the abbey doors were knocked down. More of Reston’s followers were coming in.

“Both of you, back!” Nate shouted as he grabbed the second piece he’d disarmed Reston of.

               As soon as he touched the second piece, the memory started to feel even clearer. The street signs of Kingwood and Crimson, the kids’ faces, the pain, the blood that didn’t stop running. Nate channeled that anger forward as he fought the followers. He punched and kicked and stabbed them with the ends of the pieces of the staff. The whole time, he heard his cries from when he was a boy and saw the flashes of that moment. When he’d been weak and helpless, years before Druce had come to him with the chance to lead a normal life.

It started to become too much. Nate opened his mouth and screamed.

* * *

 

_“Help me!” he sobbed as they began to kick him on the ground. “Help!”_

_Kingwood Avenue and Crimson Lane. The latter was sickeningly appropriate with the blood that wouldn’t stop coming out of him._

_A screech of wheels coming to a stop changed everything. The small group who’s been beating him looked up as a car door slammed. Nate blinked, one of his eyes starting to swell shut as his father stalked over, shouting at the kids to go home. Then he picked Nate up and carried him over to the backseat of the car. His sister was sitting there, eyes widened at the sight of him._

_“Here,” Hank Heywood tossed a towel to her as he set Nate inside. “Hold it on wherever he’s bleeding.”_

_Nate wanted to start crying again, but he had to hold his tears in. His dad hated it when he cried. His hemophilia already made him weak in Hank’s eyes._

_“Dad,” he whimpered._

_“You just got out of the hospital after the last stunt you pulled,” his father growled. “Now we have to go back.”_

_“It wasn’t my fault.”_

_“Those kids beating you up? Your sister heard what happened at school today. Showing off to all the teachers and pretending you’re the greatest gift to the class. You made them mad and they retaliated. You brought this upon yourself.”_

_Nate sniffled. “I’m sorry.”_

_“Dad,” his sister said. “It’s not his fault. He’s only eight. Those kids who were hurting him, I know they’re bullies.”_

_“Bullies happen. You have to stand up to them. Apparently, Nathaniel can’t. He’s too weak.”_

_Nate really wanted to cry now. Instead, he bit his lip and clung to the towel on his arm as his father raced towards the hospital. He didn’t want to go back there. He was already known as the sick kid, he just wanted to be known for being smart or something else instead of that. That was why he’d showed off with the answers in class._

_It only got him pain and misery._

* * *

 

               Rip watched as Nate fell to his knees between the rows of pews, his eyes a million miles away. The pieces of the staff slipped out of his grip and dropped to the floor. He sunk down a moment later, crawling away from the path of destruction he’d just brought. Zee rushed forward to help him up, and Rip followed after her. Sarah Reston now entered the room with two boys. She held the third piece of the staff and at the sight of her husband’s dead body, screeched a battle cry.

Nate, who Zee had just helped up, pulled himself away from her to grab the pieces. Rip stepped in front of him.

“This time, I’m helping you,” he told the other man.

Nate nodded and stepped back beside Zee, too tired to argue. Rip took a deep breath and approached the two staves. Picking them up, he gritted his teeth as memories of Calvert flooded back to him. He could practically see Jonas inching towards him, his hand extended out to him. It was as if he had been back there again.

Sarah Reston ran at him, but Rip was ready. He blocked her attacks with his two ends before kicking her backwards. Her piece of the staff rolled out of her hands as she tumbled back against one of the pews that hadn’t quite been reduced to splinters. The two boys, who must have been her sons, moved to attack him as well, but he brought them down easily.

Rip approached the piece their mother had had as it began to tremble. When he was close enough, it flew up and attached itself to the piece that had been found in the tree. Realizing the staff was coming back together, he held the final piece to the other end, and it flew back into place as well. The full staff was now in his hands.

Meanwhile, Sarah Reston was finally pulling herself off the ground, a scowl on her face. “I am not afraid of you.”

“Big mistake.”

She charged again at him, but Rip was ready for her. He spun the Berserker staff and knocked her off her feet again. Sarah Reston crumpled to the floor, groaning but not getting back up.

“Damn,” Zee said behind him.

Rip smiled a little, knowing she couldn’t see it. He bent down and set the staff on the floor. As it left his hands, the pleas of Jonas died down a little.

They never really stopped completely.

* * *

As the followers of the paganist group were taken away into custody, Nate sat beside Rip in one of the few pews. “Did you see something when you held it?”

The other man nodded.

“How could you hold all three then?”

“Because I see it every day,” Rip murmured, glancing over at Ray, Lily, and Zee. “You might want to talk to them, make sure they’re okay after what you said to them.”

“Yeah.” Nate rose to his feet, making his way over to them.

“Wait, Gideon did that?” Zee was saying as he drew closer. “Just shoved her hand right in?”

“It saved his life,” Lily replied. “I froze. I didn’t know what to do.”

“You didn’t freeze,” Ray said immediately. “It was a really stressful and sudden situation. Plus, Gideon probably has more…”

He trailed off as he saw Nate standing in front of them. The trio all looked at him. His mouth suddenly felt very dry.

“I’m…I’m sorry,” Nate finally said. “I’m sorry for those things I said to you in Seville. The staff was messing me, but I should have kept my cool better. I got frustrated and things I didn’t mean came out.”

“We know,” Zee nodded. “It stung, but you weren’t yourself. But now you’re back to normal, right?”

He shrugged. “Probably need a good night’s sleep.”

“We’re lucky Gideon got us a hotel for the night,” Lily reminded them. “You can get a good rest there instead the beds on the plane. Not that there’s anything wrong with them. Oh, and uh, I forgive you too.”

Nate looked over at Ray.

“Awww, I’ll forgive you, buddy,” the tall man said, wrapping him in a hug. “You had chemicals going haywire in your brain after all.”

A ringing interrupted them. Lily’s face flushed as she dug her hand into her pocket and pulled out her phone. Nate could read ‘Mom and Dad’ upside down on the screen.

“I’m going to take this,” she said, stepping off to the side.

Ray smiled as she left the little circle. “She hasn’t spoken to them since the virus because she didn’t want them to worry. I’m glad she’s doing so now.”

Nate nodded, noticing Zee looked a little wistful as she watched Lily talk. The hacker seemed to be searching for a place of belonging. Right now, she seemed to have found it in SHIELD.

One day, he might tell her there was a place she could find more belonging, one that wouldn’t hold her back so much.

* * *

 

“Tempted to pick it up?”

Gideon turned to see Mick standing behind her.

“You’re not the first person to look at it that way. What do you want to see?”

“It just so happens the two of us have something in common now,” Gideon told him. “We’ve both been stabbed in the heart. The difference is that I was almost killed, I think. It’s hazy there, and the aftermath is mostly a blank. I just woke up a few months after it happened with no memory of being revived or hospitalized.”

“Does it haunt you?” Mick asked.

Gideon shrugged. “I don’t think so.”

“Don’t think you’d see it then.”

She chuckled. “You’re probably right. Onto other matters, do you need a lift back to Spain? We’re staying the night over here, but we can drop you off tomorrow.”

“I can get there myself,” Mick said, starting to walk with her out of the monastery. “Been doing some thinking since you picked me up. I’ve been on Earth a long time. Might be time to try and go back home.”

“To Asgard?”

“Yup,” he nodded. “Might go back to being a blacksmith. I’ll see.”

“I’m glad you know where you’re going. Do you need anything to get back there?”

Mick shook his head. “I know how to. Just need to get a few things first. Nice to work with you, Agent Rider.”

“And you as well,” Gideon shook his hand. “Thank you for your help.”

“Not a problem. Just make sure you keep that staff locked up. You don’t want anyone else getting their hands on it.”

“We’ll do that.”

* * *

 

               Gideon strolled down the sidewalk, stuffing her hands into her pockets. There was a slight chill in the Irish air that hit her in waves. It made the agent feel glad that she remembered to grab a jacket before she left the hotel. Not only did it keep her warm, but the blue leather made her blend in with the civilians than her pantsuit. Still, she wanted to get back to where they were staying soon and curl up in bed after the day they had been through.

               The rest of the team was back at the hotel, enjoying a night there on the ground instead of up in the air on the plane. There was nothing wrong with the Waverider, but sometimes it just felt good to be somewhere else for a change. When she’d left, the sunshine twins had been about to shoot a round at the billiards table in the hotel bar. Zee had been down at the restaurant with Nathaniel, both of them having finished dinner and the SO finally talking peacefully to his trainee without yelling hurtful things. Rip had not been there, but Gideon figured he was dealing with the repercussions of using the whole Berserker staff. Mick had told them about the effects of the staff, so Gideon had decided to give him time before approaching him again about it.

               As she turned the corner to walk back to the hotel, she was surprised to see Nathaniel walking towards her. When she’d left the hotel, Gideon had figured he would be staying at the bar and then going back to his room. Perhaps his head had been too noisy with the things the staff had brought back up for him. Mick had told them that it brought back some of the worst memories from a person’s life. She didn’t know what the specialist had seen, but if she felt herself relieving a horrible memory, she would be retreating into herself too.

“Thought you would be enjoying the accommodations instead of walking out here,” Gideon told him as she walked up to him.

Nate smiled briefly as he fell into step beside him. “I needed some fresh air. Clear my head or at least try to. Didn’t know you would be out here.”

Gideon nodded as they got closer to the entrance. “Yes, well, it’s not something I get to do often when we’re on the plane. And you aren’t the only one clearing your head.”

“Can I ask what from?”

She stopped just outside the doors to consider whether or not to tell him. He was a member of the team, the highest ranked after herself and Rip. They had talked before at times, and she could see him leading his own team one day with more experience under his belt. Maybe she could afford to extend a little more trust towards him. After all, he’d come to her about his memory from the staff.

“I’ve been thinking about what happened to me after I died,” she confessed, walking again into the hotel with him. “I know they brought me back, but things after it felt so hazy. It makes me wonder if there’s more than what they told me.”

“Wouldn’t they tell you what happened?” Nate asked, pressing the button for the elevator.

“In a perfect world, yes. We don’t live in one though. There are things the doctors or Waller might have not told me, things they could have lied about. I don’t know for sure though.”

Nate’s eyebrows knit together. “How sure are you that they’re lying to you about something?”

“I’m certain there’s at least one thing,” Gideon said as they entered the elevator. “I hate being lied. I just want to know the truth and I won’t stop until I find it.”

The specialist was silent for a moment. Then he reached out and took her hand gently. “I know you won’t. You’ll find out what it is.”

Gideon stared up at him. “You seem pretty sure about that.”

“You’re too determined to let something go once you set your sights on it,” Nate chuckled. “I’ve seen that for myself.”

               The doors parted, revealing that they were on their floor. Gideon exited the elevator before turning back to look at Nate again. He wasn’t moving to his room, instead holding his gaze with her. She didn’t move either, not exactly knowing why. Then he took a step forward, dipping his head down to kiss her.

               Gideon’s eyes widened for a moment in surprise at what was now occurring. However, she found herself leaning up on the tips of her toes and reciprocating the kiss. There was so much going on in her life with Mirakuru and her resurrection and the team and all the unanswered questions were weighing down on her. She needed an escape from it all, a release from the stress. Nate was offering her the mindless distraction and Gideon was willing to take it.

               They reached his room and he’d shut the door behind them when logic finally came back to her. This wasn’t right. She was the leader of the team, the one who guided the others towards what to do. Getting involved with a subordinate she worked with was a trope that she refused to let herself get sucked into. Gideon pressed her hands against Nate’s chest and pushed herself away from him.

“I can’t do this,” she told him.

Nate frowned at her. “Is something wrong? Was I-”

“We can’t do this,” Gideon sighed. “This is a mistake. I’m not going to get involved with a subordinate. This isn’t who am I, and this is never to happen again. Understand, Agent Heywood.”

His shoulders slumped and he nodded. “I’m clear, Agent Rider. I’m sorry that I overstepped.”

“I shouldn’t have kissed you back,” she muttered. “Not a word is to be spoken of this.”

“Yes, ma’am. Good night.”

“Good night,” Gideon replied, opening the door up into the hallway and shutting it behind her.

Leaning against the wall, Gideon sighed and ran her hands through her hair. She needed to get a grip on herself. Besides, Nathaniel Heywood? What was wrong with her?

**Author's Note:**

> That moment at the end is not going to be forgotten. We're not pulling a Mayward, but it will be addressed again.
> 
> Mick will return in a future fic, possibly sooner than you expect.
> 
> Reviews and kudos are love and motivate us to write more!


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